What B2B Decision-Makers Actually Want in Cold Outreach: 8 Professionals Share What Works

Cold outreach is an incredible challenge. I struggle with it, and I know many of my photographer colleagues do as well. I've spent months searching for outreach advice that actually applies to the AEC industry. I found almost nothing that applies to my potential clients—architects, contractors, developers, and manufacturers. Most B2B outreach advice is geared toward founders and sales reps selling SaaS solutions.

I decided to stop trying to guess what works and what doesn't. I reached out to decision-makers who regularly receive outreach messages and asked about their experiences. I heard from professionals across different sectors—general contractors, magazine editors, manufacturing executives, digital marketing CEOs—and asked what makes outreach effective, what gets deleted immediately, and what common mistakes they see again and again.

Clear patterns emerged. Personalization, specificity, and brevity consistently separated emails that got read from those that got deleted. One caveat: their advice skews heavily toward technical, problem-solving capabilities. I'm still working through exactly how these principles apply to creative services like photography, where decisions are more subjective. But first, here's what I learned.

Personalization

The best place to start is your own inbox. Be honest here, you respond to emails that are clearly written for you. Most of us ignore messages that were obviously mass-blasted, so why send them at all? I suspect it is because doing so resembles work and feels like productivity, even though the results rarely justify the effort.

Generic mass emails get deleted within seconds. Even emails that are personalized with a few details, like the prospect's name or company, probably won't land. The level of personalization that will consistently get responses requires a real investment of time and effort.

Decision-makers respond to outreach that demonstrates genuine understanding of their specific situation. The difference between getting read and getting deleted often comes down to a single detail—mentioning a current project they're managing, referencing an urgent need, or demonstrating knowledge of their timelines. Miko Pasanen, owner of Miko LLC, a general contracting company, underscores the importance of personalization:

"Outreach succeeds when it is personalized and timely. If you reference a specific project I am currently managing or a trade gap I need to fill, I will take notice. The best messages feel like a direct solution to a current challenge rather than a generic sales pitch sent to a massive list."

He shared an example where a vendor mentioned they'd just completed a similar project in the area and had a crew available that fit his timeline. That one highly personalized message turned into a long-term partnership. The investment in one personalized, well-researched message can pay off.

Specificity

Personalization shows you've done your research on who they are. Specificity demonstrates that you understand what they actually need. The more technical your prospect's industry, the more concrete and detailed your first contact needs to be. Vague claims about being "fast" or "accurate" mean nothing without data.

Ruben Nigaglioni, Sales Director at Raise3D, a 3D printing manufacturer, demonstrates what real specificity looks like:

"Outreach that lands is short, tailored to our FFF ops, and backed by numbers. Show how you lift first-part yield or throughput without hurting surface finish. Include: cycle time at a stated layer height and material (PA/CF at 0.2 mm), accuracy in an enclosed build, maintenance intervals for abrasives, emissions/ESD compliance, API or logging for fleet traceability, and TCO with spares and training."

Daniel Reynolds, Managing Director of Dynamo LED, provides an example of what he considers effective outreach:

"What stands out: a concise email with project context and three specifics: viewing distance with target pixel pitch, indoor/outdoor with required nits and IP rating, and timeline plus budget range."

If you're reading either of those examples thinking "I have no idea what half of those terms mean"—that's exactly the point. I have no idea either! Nigaglioni and Reynolds don't want outreach that is full of generalities. They want someone who understands their specific technical requirements, at a certain level of detail, and can speak their language. Marketing speak gets deleted. Unsubstantiated claims get deleted. Technical precision gets read. This principle applies beyond jargon. Whether it's specs, timelines, or budget constraints, specificity signals you've done your research. Vague claims can apply to anyone, which means they connect with no one.

Lead With Value

Personalization and specificity are straightforward once you're aware of them—they just require an investment of time and effort. Leading with value instead of your credentials is much harder. It's a psychological framing problem more than anything else, and it's one of the most common mistakes in cold outreach. Ananya Varma, Editor at Trovia Magazine, provides a clear roadmap for successful communication:

"The first contact should include three things only, a clear problem you solve, one specific outcome you've delivered for a similar company, and a low-friction next step. No decks. No long case studies. Just relevance. The most common mistake is leading with credentials instead of value, or worse, pushing for a call before earning curiosity."

I always remind myself that potential clients don't care about where I went to school, or how many years of experience I have, or how much better I think I am at my job than the next guy. And yet, this is a mistake that is incredibly easy to make over and over again because it feels so counter-intuitive. 

The problem extends beyond credentials to the idea of features versus solutions. It's easy to get bogged down in the details of your own process—you know the "how" inside and out. But other people don't care about your process. They want to know what's in it for them. Chris Stevenson of 730 South Exteriors sees this often:

"A big mistake is focusing too much on themselves instead of the problems contractors actually deal with."

I try to remind myself that people care about the vacation, not the plane ride. But empathy is difficult—it takes more emotional energy than other cognitively difficult tasks, like research or data analysis. Actual caring is exhausting. In theory, the shift from "here's what I do" to "here's what I solve for you" should be simple. In practice, it requires diligently fighting the instinct to sell yourself instead of your solution.

Brevity

Keep it short! People are busy, their inboxes are full, and they don't want to read your unsolicited essay. They want short, easily scannable emails they can process in under 30 seconds. This means getting the essential information upfront: who you are, what you solve, and why it matters to them specifically.

Long introductions, detailed case studies, and company history belong on your website, not in a first contact email. Multiple respondents emphasized that massive file attachments get deleted immediately. If they even make it past spam filters, they clog inboxes and signal that you haven't considered the recipient's time. Stephen Rahavy, President of Kitchenall, is explicit about structure:

"First contact should be a short email with 5 bullets and one link to submittals/shop drawings."

If you need to share detailed information, include a single link to relevant materials. That’s all you need. Brief emails with clear structure consistently outperform lengthy paragraphs. Save the comprehensive pitch for after you've earned their interest. If your email can't be read quickly on a phone, it's too long.

Low Friction

Every outreach email should make it effortless for the recipient to say yes or no. The way to do this is to end with a clear, simple next step that makes it easy for the recipient. Here, you want to actively reduce their mental effort.

We often sabotage ourselves by asking for too much, too soon. Requesting a 30-minute call, a full demo, or a detailed conversation before you've established relevance is too forward. Look in the mirror again, are you taking calls with strangers who email you out of the blue? Maybe once in a while, but not that often, right? 

That person has one email to decide if you're worth an investment of their time, and the answer is usually no. Jason Hennessey, CEO of Hennessey Digital, advocates for a less is more approach for the call-to-action:

"A simple ask for a quick conversation is better than pushing a full demo right away."

Alternatives might be asking a question they can answer in one sentence, offering to send specific examples for reference, or suggesting a brief exchange before asking for any kind of meeting. The goal is to lower the barrier to engagement as much as possible. Make saying yes effortless, and make saying no just as easy. Pushy tactics and artificial urgency backfire—they signal desperation rather than confidence.

Email, Don’t Call

Personally, I wish I could just send everybody mailers, but that's definitely not the best approach. Among the professionals surveyed, email dominates as the singular preferred first contact method. The reason is practical, it creates a searchable record that recipients can review on their own schedule.

Another instance where a little bit of empathy goes a long way. When you're managing projects, coordinating teams, juggling deadlines, or in meetings throughout the day, email allows you to engage when you have time to think, not when someone happens to call. 

LinkedIn can work for an initial connection, but only if the message is personalized and you're not immediately pitching. This is something that actually happens to me on LinkedIn all the time. It's called a pitch slap, when someone requests a connection and then slides right in your direct messages with a sales pitch. I can't envision how that is an effective tactic.

The consensus on cold calls was downright negative: they're disruptive. Unless someone has already expressed interest, calling interrupts their work at an unpredictable time. Physical mail rarely gets read, even my beloved handwritten postcards are almost certainly going straight into the bin. The pattern is clear: start with email, make it worthwhile, and give the recipient control over when and how they respond. They've told you how they want to be contacted. Listen to them.

More Mistakes to Avoid

We've covered six methods for improving outreach. Send a short email, written specifically for them, solving a real problem, that is easy to respond to. Easy enough, right? Let’s go over a few more pitfalls.

Another common mistake is treating every industry the same. What works for selling to a tech startup doesn't work for reaching out to a general contractor, and what resonates with a manufacturer may not be what an architect needs.

Every industry has specific requirements, conventions, and constraints that you need to understand before making contact. For contractors, it might be pre-qualification processes, or minority business certifications. For manufacturers, it's compliance standards, and certifications. For commercial equipment suppliers, it's health codes and safety listings. Pratik Singh Raguwanshi of Live Help India sees this mistake constantly: generic automated messages that completely miss industry-specific nuances like "engineering constraints or certifications required for each particular industry."

If you're reaching out to someone in construction and you don't mention relevant certifications, they know you haven't done basic research. If you contact a manufacturer without understanding production constraints, you're wasting their time. Generic outreach signals one of two things: either you haven't researched their industry, or you don't understand it well enough to work with them. 

Some other recurring mistakes include massive file attachments that clog inboxes and unrealistic claims about capabilities or timelines. Perhaps most damaging are constant follow-ups that create artificial urgency. Chris Stevenson’s comments illustrate how being pushy erodes trust:

"Constant follow-ups or creating fake urgency also turn me off fast. Trust matters in this industry, and that stuff kills it."

This hard-sell approach backfires because it demonstrates a lack of confidence rather than competence. Tough to stomach, but it’s a habit we all need to unlearn.

The common thread across all of these insights—from personalization to channel preferences—is empathy. Try to understand what the other person actually needs, respect their time, make it easy for them to engage. How can you make one small part of their job easier? This isn't revolutionary advice. But as I've admitted repeatedly, knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things.

This research focused on technical services where decision criteria are clear and measurable. Creative services present different challenges. But regardless of what you're selling, the people deleting your emails have made it clear what they want. The investment required is significant. Research the firm. Understand their actual needs. Write specifically for them. Don't lead with credentials. How do you scale this, you ask? You don’t! This is slower than blasting generic emails to a hundred contacts. Much, much slower. But one well-researched message is more valuable than a hundred generic ones.